


Thank God for Faulty Pockets

by loki_god_of_cumberbatch2



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Fluff, M/M, accidental date, cas forgets his wallet, train fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-25
Updated: 2014-11-25
Packaged: 2018-02-27 00:29:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2672123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loki_god_of_cumberbatch2/pseuds/loki_god_of_cumberbatch2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel leaves his wallet on the train, and Dean runs off to give it to him, effectively missing the last train of the night so Cas gives him a lift and accidental date occurs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thank God for Faulty Pockets

**Author's Note:**

> I just want to say I have no idea how train platforms, or schedules work in America, so we're just going to pretend this particular au takes place in Australia if the details are too wrong.

Castiel is beyond exhausted as the train finally pulls up to his stop. He heaves himself out of his seat and quickly makes his way off the train, trying to avoid being pushed around too much by other travellers eager to alight.

Once he’s off he spins on the platform for a second, trying to wake up enough to remember which side of the platform he had parked his car. Castiel sighs as he remembers it’s on the far end and begins the annoyingly far walk to his car.

"Hey trench coat guy!” a deep voice rings out behind him after only making it a few steps. He ponders whether it’s worth stopping, if the man was even yelling at him. Castiel’s exhaustion wins out and he just continues walking. Half a beat later though he feels a strong hand on his shoulder. He spins around to face a tall man in a well-fitting suit with short brown hair, a smattering of freckles and the brightest green eyes he’d ever seen.

“You, uh, left this on the train,” the man says as he extends his hand which holds Castiel’s battered wallet.

Castiel feels like beating himself in the head. He’d been having problems with the pockets in his coat for weeks now. Things always falling out but he couldn’t bring himself to get rid of it. But without that damn wallet he would’ve been stuck on the platform for hours until an attendant came on duty in the morning and sold him another ticket, which wasn’t for several more hours.

He smiles at the man and takes his wallet back, pulling out his opal pass before shoving it into the pocket in his backpack, so it wouldn’t fall out again.

“Thanks a lot, would’ve been stuck here til six without this,” he says with another tired smile. The man nods absently and Castiel notices he’s staring at the now blank screen that displaces arrivals.

“You needed to be on that train to get home didn’t you?” Castiel realises with a cringe as the man absently nods again. All trains out of the city have stopped for the night, and wouldn’t been running again for at least five hours. Now this guy’s gone and missed his last chance to get home all because he forgot his wallet. Castiel makes a decision and tries not to miss sleeping for a while too much.

“I can give you a lift home if you like,” he says, finally catching the man’s full attention.

“Oh no I couldn’t possibly. It’s a really far drive, I’ll just try and find an all-night coffee place or something to wait it out,” he says with a dismissive wave of his hand.

“I don’t mind though, its least I can do. I am the reason you’re stranded here after all,” Castiel says against his better judgment. He did mind, he’d worked a twelve hour shift at the hospital and was in serious need of food and rest, but he just couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from this man. And he did feel extremely bad for the guy.

“Hm, well okay, as long as you’re absolutely sure,” the man says apprehensively. Castiel nods and the man smiles, offering his hand.

“In that case I’m Dean.”

“Castiel,” he responds, shaking Dean’s hand which is warm and firm in his own.

“Castiel? Weird. I like it,” Dean says dropping his hand and falling into step beside Castiel as they make their way to stairs at the end of the platform. They climb the stairs in silence and make their way along the bridge to the staircase down to the street side parking lot. Halfway down, Dean finally speaks.

“So what do you do for a living Cas?” Castiel tries to ignore the blush he feels rising at the new nickname and focuses on the question.

“I work at the hospital,” he says simply, hoping to avoid elaborating. People always seemed to make fun of him for being a nurse instead of a doctor, and he didn’t feel like being a point of ridicule right now. Dean looked as if he were going to say something but stopped short when they reached the ticket barriers leading out of the station.

“Uh, little confession, out at my station we don’t have these thingys and I’m always running late so I don’t always get a chance to buy a ticket which obviously doesn’t matter since I don’t need one to get off the train,” he blurts out quickly. Castiel sighs and looks back at Dean, who is scratching his neck and shifting uncomfortably. He looks back at the barriers again and comes up with an idea.

“I’d let you just use this pass separately but this stuff isn’t cheap, so how about you just stay really close behind me and we’ll run through before the barrier closes again?” he asks, casting a quick glance at the security camera, silently praying they don’t monitor them constantly.

“Sounds like a good idea, thanks,” Dean says with a nod. They both step up to the barrier and Castiel places the opal card just off the sensor and turns his head back.

“Okay, count of three,” he says, feeling incredibly juvenile. “One…two…three,” he quickly swipes his pass and the both rush through the barrier. Dean is laughing a bit when they stop running a few metres further, and Castiel can’t help but smile.

“That thing clipped my leg, think I only just made it,” he says with a grin on his face.

Castiel grins back, before turning to scour the car park for his hiding car. He spots it on the far side and begins walking towards it, quickly turning to make sure Dean is following and is momentarily shocked to find him walking silently beside him. The hint of a grin still on his face. Soon enough they’re in the car, Dean turning up the heat and Castiel navigating out of the car park. He stops at the exit and twists in his seat to face Dean.

“So what’s your address then?” Dean gives it to him and Castiel fights the urge to groan loudly. It’s at least a forty minute drive, an hour and a bit if you count the way there, plus the way back to his own house.

“Not a problem,” Castiel says when he notices Dean shifting uncomfortably in his seat, clearly feeling bad for living so far away. He shoots him a quickly smile, and pulls out of the car park, turning left instead of right and glancing wistfully at the road he won’t see for another hour or so.

After a solid twenty minutes of comfortable silence, Dean finally perks up.

“There’s an all-night diner around here I used to go to, you should stop there and I’ll buy you a cup of coffee. Might as well partly make up for such a long drive.” Castiel was going to argue, but the thought of good coffee waking him a bit is just too tempting. So he nods and begins to keep an eye out for the diner in question.

It’s another five minutes before Dean points to a structure, and they pull into a small parking lot in front of an old, but charming diner. After another five minutes, they are sitting across from one another in a booth with their knees touching. Castiel is cradling a warm mug of coffee in his hands, and Dean is spooning large mounds of apple pie into his mouth. His pie is soon finished though, and he pulls his mug of coffee towards himself before staring right into Cas’ eyes.

“So, what is it you do at the hospital Cas?” Dean asks swallowing down a large sip of coffee and licking his lips. Castiel falters at the question.

It’d been so long since he was first asked about his work that he’d thought Dean had dropped the subject. He weighed his thoughts and just decided to go with the truth, he was too tired to lie.

“I’m a nurse,” he says quickly and bluntly not wanting to dwell. Dean’s eyes shoot open and huge grin burst onto his face.

“Amazing, superhero in scrubs huh?” Dean says, the grin not wavering as he takes another sip of coffee. Castiel falters again at Dean’s response, usually people laughed at him, asking why he didn’t just become a doctor and leave the nursing to the women. He finally relaxes as Dean shoots him another grin, and decides to grin back.

“That would be the doctors,” he responds, only half joking.

“Oh no way Cas. I was in hospital not long ago, car accident,” he quickly adds when he sees Castiel’s eyes flash with concern. “And all the doctors did was wander in every few hours making sure I had the right amount of meds and was healing properly. It was the nurses who were making sure everything was going fine every ten minutes. And when the guy next to me almost died, it took five whole minutes for a doc to show up, but nurses were in the room in seconds trying their best to stabilise him. I mean don’t get me wrong, doctors are great, but you guys are real heroes.” Dean finishes, pointing at Cas with another smile.

Castiel stays silent, pondering what he’d just been told. He loved his job, and was appreciated by a lot of the patients he worked with, but it felt different coming from Dean. More sincere and heart felt, and even though he didn’t even know Dean he wanted to hug him. Instead he threw Dean a smile, which morphed into a grin when he felt the other man’s knee bump against his own.

“So what do you do then Dean?” He asked, which sparked up a conversation that bled into another, which bled into six more. They talked for three hours, during which they gravitated towards one another, fingers brushing above the table, and knees pressed hard against together under the table. The two men didn’t even realise they’d been so deeply lost in the conversation until a tired looking waitress interrupted Dean halfway through talking about the law firm his brother Sam worked in.

“Look I’m sorry boys, but if you wanna stay you’re gonna have to buy something else,” she said, sounding even more tired than she looked. Castiel quickly glanced up at the clock, he had another shift in less than six hours, and he still needed to drive another hour home and get some sleep.

“I have work tomorrow, so looks like we’ll be off,” he says to the waitress, though his eyes never leave Dean’s.

Dean smiles and wraps his hand completely around Castiel’s, pulling him out of the booth and into the car park. They drop hands once they reach the car, and Castiel tries not to feel empty at the loss of warmth around his hand. They pick up their conversation straight away and talk nonstop for the remaining twenty minutes of the drive. Dean almost sounds disappointed when he directs Cas to pull over in front of a modestly little house in a quiet street.All the lights are off except the one above the door, Cas figures whoever was waiting for him decided to go to bed.

“I’m living with my brother and his girlfriend for now,” Dean explains. “Well technically they’re with me but no point in splitting hairs.” He is fidgeting with the house keys he pulled from his pocket and is staring at Castiel again.

Cas nods even though he was only half listening, the other half of his mind was trying to figure out how to make sure he saw Dean again. Once he registered Dean’s hand reaching for the car door he couldn’t help himself.

“You should call me,” he blurts out. He almost regrets being so forward, until Dean turns back around with another large grin on his face.

“I’d love to,” he says pulling a pen from the inside of his suit jacket, offering it and his hand to Cas.

Castiel quickly scrawled his number on the back of Dean’s hand, but was reluctant to let the hand go again, and from how tightly his was being held, he was pretty sure Dean felt the same. He glanced down to their joined hands, and back up to Dean’s eyes, and was only slightly startled when he notice Dean had moved significantly closer. Castiel quickly closed his eyes and closed the gap between the two of them before he could talk himself out of it. Dean’s lips were warm and solid and even though the kiss was chaste Cas could feel his heartbeat in his stomach. He could also feel Dean’s lips pull up into a smile as they pulled away from one another.

“Great meeting you Cas,” he says, reluctantly pulling his hand away and opening the car door.

“Same to you, Dean.”

Castiel doesn’t drive away until Dean is inside, and as he pulled away from the kerb and started the long drive home he had only one thought rushing through his mind, _thank god for faulty pockets._

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, as always, kudos and comments are greatly appreciated.
> 
> I also just want to mention that the part where they both need to get off the platform through the barrier is based on a true story, and is all fun and games until you fall on your ass from being too eager.


End file.
